


Leaden Folly

by Tallihensia



Category: Smallville
Genre: Angst, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-29
Updated: 2011-03-29
Packaged: 2017-10-17 08:55:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/175121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tallihensia/pseuds/Tallihensia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A villain captures Superman and Lex, along with some bystanders, and puts them all in a vault with kryptonite.  What choices they make will determine the outcome. Bystanders are caught up in the comics and our heroes and villains are seen through different eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leaden Folly

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** Only mine in my dreams. This story was written for free entertainment purposes only and may not be reproduced for profit or altered without permission.
> 
>  **Warnings:** Potential character death. (It would be a spoiler to say more.) It is a sad fic, though, so be warned about that too - the angst is there.
> 
>  **Spoilers:** none
> 
>  **Notes:** AU after early seasons. Post-rift. 1st person bystander telling the tale.

## Leaden Folly

I never expected to get caught up in such things. I am a normal person, who works a normal job, with a husband and child I love and go home to every night. Or I suppose I should say 'was'.

My name is Jill. I worked the counter at Metropolis' finest coffee shop. It was a good job, with nice customers. Not very exciting, but I had all the excitement I wanted in my life – to quote Bilbo, "Adventures are nasty things, make you late for dinner." Or the quote was something close to that, I don't remember exactly. Regardless, I was happy with my job and my family and didn't want anything more.

The one thing about my job that most people wouldn't take for normal was that one of our regular customers was Lex Luthor. World's richest man, and he still came by for coffee. They say he's a villain and fights with Superman. I heard the rumors but didn't pay any mind to them. To me, the most important thing was that he was always polite and friendly to everybody in the shop. He knew my name and would always ask after Raul and Khissa, laughing at hearing her growing-up antics. He asked me to call him Lex, and teased me for months until I finally did. Everybody in our shop loved him, and he left good tips.

Sometimes, I saw him go chilly and I could see what made him dangerous… but none of us blamed him for that – reporters accosting him in our coffee shop! We were a reputable place, and didn't hold with harassment in any form. If we identified any reporters before hand, Joe or Abdul would firmly escort them out. Joe was a customer, not an employee, but he was always nice and believed in helping us.

My life was happy, settled, one day passing into the other just the way I wanted it.

And then they came.

One day, when Lex was in, a gang of toughs broke the windows and waved guns around, firing until we were all crouching on the ground. I screamed from under a table and watched the blood from my fingers drip, cut by a shattered mug. Nearby, Abdul clutched his side, blood flowing much faster from his bullet wound. I could hear Lex Luthor's security detail fighting back, but it all happened so quickly…

Before I quite knew what had happened, gas was flooding in. I remember thinking that if they had gas, why did they bother with the guns? But as time would tell, they weren't exactly the most rational of criminals.

I woke sometime later, on a hard floor, yet there was something soft under my head. I groggily sat up and realized I was no longer in the shop; I was a prisoner.

The room was large, the size of a small warehouse, or something like that – I wasn't used to judging room sizes. Unless I needed to fit new furniture into the living room; that I would have been able to tell you at a glance. This, though… this was so far outside my experience, I could just gape.

The room was completely bare, with grey metal walls and steel structure beams throughout. Inside the room were others I knew. Lex Luthor was there, and I realized that it was his coat under my head. Joe was there, and another thin, spectacled man who had been buying a special spiced chai tea. There was another man there, huge and costumed. For a moment, I hoped he was a hero, but then as I listened to the conversation Lex was having with him, my heart sunk as his actions and words proved he was a villain. Master Basher, his name was. Why did villains always have such silly names? Not that heroes were much better. Anyhow, it took me a few minutes to realize there were three more people in the room. Another woman and two men. I found out later that they had been present during a robbery Master Basher had been committing when they were snatched like we were. I never did get their names, though.

Lex was talking calmly, apparently not worried at all about being right up next to a villain that could smash him. And what was more striking was that Master Basher looked scared of **him**. I guess Lex Luthor was a villain after all. It was somewhat disappointing, even in the midst of my worry about what was going on.

I stayed in my corner and watched and listened.

The discussion revolved around how to break out and who had captured them. Both Lex and Master Basher were sure the kidnappings were directed at them, and I had to silently agree. There was nothing about the rest of us of any import. But why would somebody want to kidnap two villains and a mess of regular people and put us all in a room…?

A side of the room rumbled with machinery noises, and a large section rolled up. I hadn't even realized it was a door mechanism. The new hole in the wall was about like our back delivery area, large enough to drive a truck through. In the room behind it wasn't a truck, though, there was instead a huge green bolder. One of those large ones used as decoration in front of fancy buildings, about a two-person table size. It was pretty, with striations and patterns, green and yellow and black and grey. It was glowing faintly.

Instinctively, I stood up and started walking towards it.

Then Lex was there by my side, pulling me back. "No, Jill. Stay away from it." He sounded worried. I looked into his face and saw fear there – not fear for himself, but fear for me. He pulled me behind one of the steel girders in the room, as far back from the rock as possible and told me to stay there.

"What's wrong? What is it?"

"It's poison," Lex said grimly. "It will destroy anybody who spends time in its presence."

I looked at the rock. It seemed so innocent. But it was very large, and Lex's concern was real. I stayed where I was.

There was a gasp from one of the other people who hadn't paid attention to Lex and had instead gone up closer to look.

"Superman!"

On the far side of the rock, there was a crumpled figure in red and blue lying on the ground. I hadn't even noticed him at first, so still he was.

Eagerly, the spectacled man walked into the room with the green rock, heading towards Superman.

Lex whirled around, "No!"

But it was too late. Lasers shot from the ceiling and the man was suddenly a charred heap upon the ground. I screamed, I couldn't help it; this was not something I knew. He had bought tea from me earlier, and now he was dead.

"Don't look, don't look," Lex pulled me into a hold, pressing my face against his chest. It was something my husband, Raul, would have done, except Raul wasn't here. I was torn between wanting Raul desperately and being thankful he wasn't caught up in this.

I pushed gently and Lex released me. "I have to. There's more, and we're caught up in this. Aren't we?"

He nodded slowly, his eyes troubled. "Please, stay here, don't… you have a family to go home to. No heroics, please."

I smiled despite my fears. "Don't worry; I'm not the type."

"All right. Stay behind the girder." He left me then, walking without fear for himself towards the room.

The others were all hovering, not daring to enter, their eyes darting between the charred heap that was formerly a person, and the crumpled heap beyond that was our best hope.

Master Basher was grinning from ear to ear. "All right! Superman, helpless. Now if only we can kill him, that'll be one less annoyance in town." He looked towards Lex for approval.

Lex ignored him, studying the walls.

One of the other men suddenly attacked him. "You! It's you! You're Superman's enemy! You've done something to him… You fiend!"

Showing surprising agility, Lex dodged the attack, and with a few well-placed blows brought the guy down. He shook his fist afterwards with a grimace that seemed to be distaste for having to resort to physical fight that he didn't normally engage in.

The others circled around loosely, uncertain.

Lex ignored them, peering into the room without entering it.

The girl appealed to Joe, "We could push him in! Get rid of one of the world's worst villains!"

From across the room, I could almost feel Lex's derisive eye-roll.

Joe shook his head. "We don't know that, and we don't know what is happening. It wasn't him; he was kidnapped with us. Mindless violence isn't the way to go."

Master Basher casually flung out an arm and back-handed Joe across the room. "I like casual violence."

Lex gave a glance to where Joe was slowly sitting up, then returned his attention to the room.

The girl ran over and knelt down next to Joe. The other man backed away from all of them, fear on his face. Seeing that, Master Basher grinned and casually walked towards him. "Oh good: A play toy."

Snorting, Lex took his belt off. Then he sat down and took his shoes off as well. He started poking about with them, and I couldn't quite see what he was doing, but somehow all these little bits and pieces started appearing in front of him. After he'd gotten all the parts out, he put his shoes and belt back on. Then he started assembling the things.

The man Lex'd knocked unconscious woke up, but Joe stopped the guy before he tried to hurt Lex again. Joe was trying to help the other guy as well, but so far Master Basher was just chasing him around the room at a menacing walk and shook off Joe's attempts effortlessly. That form of entertainment probably wouldn't last him long, though. If Lex was a villain, I preferred him to Master Basher.

They were all ignoring me, back in my corner. I wanted to go join them, but remembering the look on Lex's face, his worry and concern... there was a real danger here that the others were exposed to. I was probably just as exposed, a girder wasn't much protection, yet Lex would worry more if I joined them. I didn't want to distract him that way.

When Lex was done assembling the pieces he'd pulled out, he held a small, compact oval-shaped device. He went to the edge of the doorway and pointed it up.

A bright light flashed from the device to the ceiling. There was a banging sound and a puff of smoke and debris fell.

I blinked, impressed. Lex had assembled a weapon from random bits he kept in his shoes. It was both clever and somewhat silly at the same time. I had truly fallen into a world beyond my normal ken.

After the laser had fallen from the ceiling, Joe and the other guy started into the room, but Lex stopped them. He tossed something from his pockets inside and another laser hit it mid-flight.

Lex pointed his device towards that one as well, and then two more spots on the walls. He pocketed the gun. "It should be safe now."

Joe looked at him.

Lex raised an eyebrow. "You were the one who wanted to rescue Superman…" He nodded at the crumpled figure. "Go drag him out here."

"It's the rock?" Joe studied the rock and Superman next to it. He didn't step into the room.

"No. Superman wouldn't be hurt by a rock. Whoever kidnapped us did something else to him. But the rock is poison to us, and we shouldn't stay in its presence any longer than we can help it. Bring him out here, and we can see what they've done to him."

From my place across the way, I frowned. I knew Lex Luthor – he had been a customer for years. I could tell his moods and when he wanted double-cream and when he wanted espresso or even when he simply wanted a steamed milk or a barley tea. Lex was lying. I didn't know why he was lying, but he was.

Joe nodded and walked in, with only one glance to the ceiling.

No more lasers shot from the ceiling nor the walls, and Lex's shoulders untensed. He stepped inside as well, joining Joe.

Joe looked at Lex in wry acknowledgement of being the guinea pig, but he didn't say anything. Instead he knelt next to Superman, and together, he and Lex managed to bring him out.

They brought him to my corner and laid him down, limp and helpless, yet still an impressive figure in his blue and red. I knelt and slipped Lex's coat under Superman's head. The others joined us in the corner, drawn to the unconscious hero. Even the villain came, though the others left a wide gap between themselves and him.

Master Basher grinned and kicked Superman in the ribs. I could hear bone cracking and Superman let out a groan. I put my hands over Superman, though I knew not how I would be able to defend him.

Lex stepped between Superman and the villain. Lex's hands were out and casually hovering, ready for some sort of action. "Don't."

"Little man, I don't believe you're as tough as your reputation," the large villain sneered. "If you were truly the Lex Luthor we've all heard about, you would destroy Superman now!"

Lex's eyes narrowed. "We don't know what is going on. Superman is, for now, a resource we can use."

"I can get out without him. And without you." With a roar, Master Basher attacked Lex.

Lex dodged out of the way, his hands flickering out in a return attack as he swung by. Then Lex was shaking his hand, his face ridding itself of the expression of pain as soon as it had shown itself.

Master Basher laughed and turned back, casually. "Why don't you use your toy on me? Out of juice?" He flexed his hands and advanced again.

Joe stepped between, his hands spread out much like Lex's had been just a moment before. "Easy, there."

The costumed menace laughed harder and reached out to back-hand Joe, as he had done earlier.

Where before Joe had been tossed across the room by the hit, this time Joe caught the hand in his own grip, stopping the blow. As the tableau held for a long moment, Joe's hand turned blue, the blue color spreading across his skin as we all watched, mottling in shades from light sky blue to dark midnight. His shirt tore and wings unfurled from his back, the feathers glistening in an oily sheen.

"And so it begins," Lex murmured, watching.

"What, what's happening?" The girl asked, frantic and wringing her hands. I had never seen anybody actually do that before and was fascinated that it was a real gesture and not just a term in a book. Or perhaps I was just distracting myself from the changes happening to Joe.

Joe and the Masher Basher started fighting, evenly matched. Trading blows while moving about the room.

"The rock," Lex said wearily. "It mutates and kills its victims. 20% of all exposed people will mutate. Only 2% will survive the mutation."

"What about the rest of us?" One of the men asked.

Lex glanced at him, his unconcern about that person showing clearly. "Not all mutations show up immediately, and a 20% chance is that for each person. Just because Joe has mutated does not mean that you will not." He looked at the rock. "And I have never seen a specimen that big. I think it is fresh, pulled in from outer space, to be that strong and that large." Lines appeared on his forehead as he frowned. "NASA had reported some success in its comet research probe last month…"

"But what about us?" The girl repeated, near-hysterical.

With a snort, Lex ignored them and knelt next to Superman. I was still there, from when they'd brought him to my corner. As Lex knelt, I was mopping the sweat off Superman's forehead with a handkerchief I'd taken from Lex's coat that he'd left earlier. There was nothing I could do for the rib, but at least Superman was still breathing.

"What can we do for him?" I asked.

Lex brushed a hand over Superman's face, gathering some of the moisture on his fingertips and lingering lightly on his cheek. It was a surprisingly tender gesture. "Nothing."

The girl screamed and we both turned to look. The man who had been so fearful earlier, that Master Basher had been chasing around the room was shaking violently, vibrating as he yelled in pain. The girl lay on the floor near him, her hand on her shoulder, sobbing. It looked like she had been thrown there, tossed away from the man's convulsions and had broken something when she hit, her collarbone perhaps. The other man was trying to help but was obviously helpless. He kept trying to get close to the man shaking, and then edging back again, afraid of what might happen.

"Another mutation?" I asked, somehow detached from the scene. I think I was going numb to the changes.

Lex shook his head. "No." Then he changed his mind. "Well, related. The body cells that have been exposed to the radiation resisted mutation yet are still changed. Normally, the Jitters is a long-term exposure effect. This is unusual."

"If the cells have changed, it's still a mutation," I pointed out.

Lex gave me a startled glance, then grinned, acknowledging the basic truth of the answer. It took years off his age and I wished he would do it more often.

"The rock is very large," I said instead, going back to the subject.

"And fresh. It is more powerful than others I have seen and it did not come through the Earth's atmosphere. Dr. Bricton and his team must have brought it in as part of their comet research. They are probably the ones who captured us, looking to see what other mutations it makes."

I looked at the steel girder Lex had made me stay behind. "Steel protects?"

"Lead," Lex replied absently, his attention again on Superman, his hands gentle on Superman's chest, where the rib had been broken. "Lead blocks the radiation absolutely. Steel... is porous. It will protect somewhat, but not enough."

"Like tea through a sieve. Superman isn't getting better, is he?"

"He's dying."

The words were so soft, I barely heard them. Anguish in the voice, pain in Lex's face. I studied him and then the superhero, looking between them. But I wouldn't ask. It would be a violation of Lex's privacy, and his trust, to ask now.

He answered anyhow. "We were friends once, a long time ago. He saved my life. I... I owe him that life." Lifting his eyes up, he met my gaze. "Take care of him, Jill, and he will get you back to your family. He does things like that."

"Lex, what---"

Lex got up and left, walking back to the room with the green rock. He dodged around Joe and the villain fighting, avoided the man shaking, and he walked inside the room.

I watched, my heart in my throat, my hand at my mouth, as Lex studied the walls and ceiling again, then he brought his device up. Six carefully placed shots, and the ceiling collapsed, the room falling in upon him and upon the rock.

I screamed, leaving my spot and running across the way, but having to back away from the destruction.

"An opening," Master Basher said, appearing beside me and looking gleeful.

It was true, the room's destruction had torn open the wall next to it, revealing a corridor. The villain stepped through, and we let him go.

"Jill!" Joe flew over, landing beside me, his blue hands clasping me. "Are you all right?"

"Lex..." I said helplessly, waving at the rubble.

"He was in that?" Joe asked, aghast.

"He brought it down."

The villain came flying back through the opening, not of his own volition, crashing down at our feet. He didn't move.

"Not the experiment we had expected, but interesting all the same." A man-shaped rock waddled in through the opening, glancing at the collapsed section. He wore a white lab coat and was accompanied by several other hideous creatures, all in lab coats, some with clipboards, others hissing into microphones by their ears. There were things that flew, things that crawled, things that walked in a way that showed they didn't have the normal number of joints.

I backed away steadily, my hand at my mouth. Joe accompanied me, staying between me and them.

"Dr. Bricton? What happened to you?" A deep strong voice behind us inquired of the rock-man. I turned to see Superman standing, his hand unobtrusively upon the girder but otherwise showing no signs of the distress he had been in earlier.

"Yes, Superman. I studied the rock and I have become the rock and now I know even more than before what the power of science can do!" He walked closer and as he came, he started to glow green, even as the meteor in the room had.

Superman paled and took an involuntary step backwards. It was the rock. Lex had said it wasn't, but it was. Lex had sacrificed himself for Superman, but he hadn't known about the mutation Dr. Bricton had undergone and there was still danger.

 _Take care of him, Jill. Lead protects._ The words, remembered and extrapolated, seemed to vibrate through my being. I knew how to protect Superman. Nobody else did, for nobody knew his weakness, but Lex did, and Lex had told me how to protect him.

I stepped between the rock man and Superman, holding out my hands and watching indifferently as they shaded to a blue-grey color and flattened out, becoming a shield. "No," I said.

The rock man stopped, astounded as he looked at me for the first time. His eyes narrowed, and then he grinned. "Acid, take care of her."

One of the followers separated herself from the mass, her skin writhing and flowing over her body. Where she walked, she left smoking footprints.

Joe started to fly towards her, but another two followers intercepted him and they fought. I moved away, staying between Superman and the rock man, but trying not to let the flowing lady get too close. Then Superman was there, fighting her, the acid burning his costume but not affecting him – as long as I stayed between him and Dr. Bricton.

It was a weird fight, the maneuvering as much as part of it as the actual blows, as Dr. Bricton and I circled and our influences waxed and waned. His rock body made him slow, and while I still had full maneuverability at the moment, I could feel my movements also slowing, the fluidity of melted ore as it cooled. I wondered if I even looked human anymore. I wondered what Raul would think. I wondered if I would still be able to hold Khissa again.

"Superman!" A new voice entered the room and I looked over to see costumes. The Justice League had arrived.

In short order, the mutated scientists were all captured. Dr. Bricton's rock mutation didn't seem to hurt anybody but Superman. Yet... there were the mutations of all the other scientists. Had they all been mutated from the original rock? I stayed between him and everybody else as much as I could and when there was a spare moment, I told Superman my fears.

He looked at me grim-faced and then nodded. He instructed one of the other super heroes, Green Lantern, and that hero flew off with Dr. Bricton inside a yellow bubble.

And then it was over, but for the rubble.

I walked to where the room had been and placed my leaden hand upon the crumbled walls. If I had mutated sooner, would Lex have had to die? "Protect," I whispered. Joe put his blue hand upon my grey shoulder. I barely felt it. Lead does not feel.

Superman came next to us and thanked us for our help. He was gracious and heartfelt, his concern for us showing in his eyes and his real caring and gratitude. Easy to see why he was one of the most popular super heroes, when he remembered the common man and lived on our level despite his own.

Then his words stopped and his gaze fixated in the corner of the room. I turned to look and saw Lex's forgotten coat still on the ground where we had been.

Superman mouthed Lex's name silently, his skin turning pale. Then he shook his head. "One of Luthor's plots." The pain in his voice was tangible.

"No, he was kidnapped with the rest of us," Joe answered.

Superman looked up, hopeful. "Tell me," he ordered, and we did. Superman winced at hearing of the deaths, the chai customer and the Jitters man, who had apparently shaken himself to death. The other two seemed to be okay, the last I'd seen of them, but who knew what would happen to them later. I never did find out.

"And then Lex brought the ceiling down upon him and the rock. I don't know why..." Joe said, glancing between the crumpled section of the room and Superman.

"To contain the rock," I said, not sure if Joe had noticed the affect it had had upon Superman.

"It's kryptonite," Superman said over my hesitation. "A piece from my home world when it was destroyed. Though I have never seen one as large as you describe." His gaze was focused on the crumpled section, as if he could see through it, to the rock and to Lex. But he shook his head, frustrated. "They lined the walls with lead. To contain it until they were ready. When Lex... I can't see him. I can't see." He stopped, then tilted his head and drew in a sharp breath. "I can hear him. A heartbeat. Faint. Irregular. Slow. But it's his. It's Lex's."

There was such hope in his voice. Such tremulous, wondering hope. In that moment, I didn't believe a word of their rivalry. Or I believed it had happened, yet now I also believed in something else.

"He said he owed you a life, for your friendship," I said.

Superman looked at me with equal portions pain and wonder. "Luthor... Lex said that?" Without waiting for an answer, he reached out and lifted the top portion of the wreckage off. Joe darted in to help him, flying up and above to assist. They quickly started clearing the area.

Then Superman dropped the piece he'd just picked up and staggered back. He stepped forward again after a moment, but I stepped between him and it.

The kryptonite rock was still under there. To get to Lex would expose the rock and hurt Superman. The other superheroes had dispersed around the building, hunting out the other mutated scientists. Even if some of them came back then **they** would be exposed. How much mutation could any person take? What about Lex? Down there under the rubble, trapped with the rock. He still lived, according to Superman, however was he still Lex?

I looked at my hand, the fingers melted together to form a solid shield of lead. I could feel the lead through the rest of my body as well. It was in my blood, in my veins, in my every breath. I was the protection from the rock... but I knew in my heart that I wouldn't ever be Jill again. And I was dying. The flow was stilling within me, becoming solid. Soon, I wouldn't be able to move, just a statue made of lead.

 _Only 2% will survive the mutation._ Lex had wanted to protect me, yet the odds had always been against me.

"Joe," my voice hitched, "Please tell Raul I love him. And Khissa. My sweet Khissa..."

"Jill?"

I heard Joe's startled voice, but I was already stretching myself, thinning the shields that were my hands and reaching through the cracks, flowing in-between, seeking with some other senses than sight or hearing. I could feel it... feel the green radiation looking for another victim. I slipped through the rubble, fluid until I touched the rock with fingers that were no longer fingers.

 _Protect._ I edged my way onto the rock, slipping around it, coating myself on it, until I was encasing it completely. In the lee of the rock, I could sense Lex. He was curled up around the base of the rock where the curve had protected him from the worst of the collapse. I was glad he still lived. I sensed the rubble around us being removed at a faster rate now.

My senses were becoming less defined. Greyness was my vision, that and green below me. I clasped the kryptonite, molded to its very form until I myself had no form left. But that was okay, because I still protected. Nothing would get through me to the rock, and the rock's radiation would harm nobody else.

Protect.

The world faded.

* * *

  


END

**Author's Note:**

> Beta by Ronda. Cross-posted to [my livejournal](http://community.livejournal.com/alatrific/27471.html).


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